About Me

Jim is the author of eight novels, three memoirs and four business books. He made a covered wagon and horseback trip across Texas to retrace the journey his ancestors had made two generations earlier and wrote Biscuits Across the Brazos to chronicle the trip. He traveled the team roping circuit as an amateur and worked roundups on big ranches. Working beside real cowboys sent him back to writing. Using lessons he had learned from more than 10,000 client interviews over thirty years and memories from his rural Texas roots, Jim published five novels in his Follow the Rivers series and three in the Tee Jessup/Riverby series. He has also published three memoirs and story collections.He has been a Writers Digest International Book Contest Finalist.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Why do evangelical pastors like Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor and
pastor of the 11,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, support Trump? He made
headlines during the 2012 presidential election when he described The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a "cult" and said evangelicals
should not vote for then-candidate Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon.

Gordon
B. Hinckley, prior President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(1995-2008), said: “We are Christians in a very real sense and that is coming
to be more and more widely recognized. Members of our church pray and worship
in the name of Jesus Christ. He is the center of our faith and the Head of our Church.”

Jeffress later conceded,
“It is better to vote for a non-Christian (Romney,
I presume) who supports biblical principles like life and marriage than
voting for a professing Christian like Barack Obama who absolutely repudiates
what Jesus Christ said about some key issues.”

But the damage was
done. Jeffress did not seem to realize that not voting for Romney was
the same as voting for Obama. A small increase in the Christian vote
would have defeated Obama in 2012.

In
2014, Jeffress released a book claiming that Obama’s re-election was paving the
way for the Antichrist foretold in Scripture. Maybe he was promoting this
future book when he helped with his reelection.

The
good pastor is back for the 2016 election. He appeared on Fox’s
Lou Dobbs recently to again express his support for the Donald, saying that
he is the only real “outsider” (which indicates a disturbing level of naiveté).
He went on to say that after the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriages,
evangelicals seem more open to a secular candidate, that they have decided to
allow the government to solve “practical problems” and let the church solve Biblical
problems. This was in answer to a question by Dobbs wherein he described Trump
as a “very religious man—a Protestant . . . a Presbyterian”.

So
is Trump secular or Christian? Which is it, Dr. Jeffress? And are you seriously
suggesting that Christians “give up” and vote for a candidate that does not
reflect Christian values? What kind of twisted logic is that?

How
about that book of yours in 2014? Do you not realize that Trump’s values align
almost perfectly with Obama’s?

Trump
took deep offense when it appeared that the Pope was questioning his faith, but
he has questioned the faith of at least three other candidates for the
nomination many times. Maybe Jeffress is supporting Trump because they share a
common personality trait of narcissists. They seem able to hold opposing ideas
in their heads at the same time, to change positions regularly, and yet believe
all positions held are exactly right.

“The notion that the church, the press, and the
universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist
notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free — which is to
say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state."
—Alan Barth (1906-1979)

Food for thought: "Just how much must
evangelicals and conservatives compromise themselves to support Trump? That is
the ultimate problem. Every person supporting Trump has not just compromised on
a candidate, but compromised their core values. ... These people are
compromising their integrity for a presidential candidate willing to use
profane language on the campaign trail and bombast to overcome a lack of
knowledge of details. 'For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world
and forfeit his soul?'" —Erick Erickson

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Donald Trump is an enigmatic phenomenon created by a
sustained assault on critical thinking by the whining, oversensitive crybabies
of political correctness encouraged by the likes of Obama, Reid, Pelosi
et al. Americans are disgusted and angry at their attempts to take away our
liberties and diminish America’s standing in the world, not to mention their
utter devastation of our economy by running up more debt than all previous
administrations combined. Yes, I said combined. There is a tipping point and we
are nearing it.

“The Donald” is also a product of John Boehner and Mitch
McConnell, who along with some other Republicans, made promises in order to get
elected which they broke. Their policy of lying down, rolling over, and playing
dead infuriated many of us.

I realized long ago that America is hungry for straight talk
from a forceful leader. We want our intelligence to be respected and our
freedoms to remain intact. For many, Trump seems to fill that need. But does
he?

Trump supporters say:

He is not part of the establishmentand will not be beholden to special
interests.

Nonsense. He is more establishment than any of the other
candidates. The establishment is
not just politicians, but the large donors who own them. Trump gave money to
Reid, Pelosi, Obama, and even
contributed $150K to the Clinton Foundation. He defines theterm “crony capitalism”.

He will build a wall
and make Mexico pay for it and rid our country of people here illegally who
are draining our economy.

During the last presidential election, he called taking away
welfare from illegal immigrants
inhumane and is on record as supporting legalization and citizenship for
folks who came here illegally. Will the
real Donald Trump please come forward?

He will destroy our
enemies, especially ISIS, and keep us safe.

Trump claims to have opposed the war in Iraq from inception. Yet he is on
record as supporting it until a full eighteen months after it began. And what about
his blaming W. for 9/11? Isn’t
that an extreme left conspiracy position? Does that kind of deranged thinking
befit a commander-in-chief?

He also shamefully hides behind 9/11, mentioning the hundreds of friends he
lost. Though nobody can find records of his attending any of the funerals, I will
accept what he says. But I do know he
took (yes, I said took) $150K from the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program as a “small
business” hurt by the attacks. His “small business”
brings in $26.4 million annually and occupies a $400 million building.

He seems willing to equate his prep school time with
military experience.

A military veteran said that Trump would take the lawyers
off the battlefield (referring to
the ridiculous rules-of-engagement that our Wimp-in-Chief imposes on our soldiers.) Maybe he would, but Trump has surrounded himself
with lawyers his entire adult
life.

Speaking of that . . .

He is currently involved in 169 federal lawsuits.

He is being sued for fraud for his now-defunct Trump
University.

In 2013, he settled a lawsuit from investors who lost
millions in his California resort that went belly-up.

He is an extremely
successful businessman.

Hard to argue that point, yet he has filed bankruptcy four times in the
same gambling, hotel, casino
business. A lot of fine people have gone bankrupt and recovered, butfour times in the same business?Is he a slow-learner? He proudly says he used
the laws available to him. Translation:
He hid behind bankruptcy protection statutes to avoid paying creditors. If you had $9 billion, would you pay people who
loaned you money or would you let
them lose? How about the hundreds of employees who lost their jobs? If he wins the nomination, those folks will be
in campaign ads.

What John
Bright said of someone else applies to Trump. “He is a self-made man who worships his creator.”

He will get our budget
balanced, reduce the national debt, and keep taxes low.

How does that square with his support of the bailout of
large banks and the subsequent
stimulus that added trillions to our debt without contributing to a real recovery? The only problem he had
with either is that they were “not large enough”.

He will get rid of Obamacare.

Maybe, but he promises to replace it with universal care, a
single payer system controlled by the government. Do you
really want your doctors to work for the government
and hospitals run by bureaucrats?Anyone
who believes that the government should
take over another 20-25% more of the economy is not qualified to run for any public office, much less president. P.
J. O’Rourke said, “If you think health care is expensive
now, wait until it’s free.”

He is a conservative.

He has not voted in a Republican primary for at least thirty
years. Did he just skip voting or
did he vote Democrat?

He is pro-life
and a Christian.

But wait … what about that pesky video a few years back
where he said he was pro-choice
including partial birth abortions? He is threatening to sue Ted Cruz for
playing it in a campaign ad. He
calls Cruz a liar for exposing his positions. Wouldn’t you love to hear the deposition when Cruz asks,
“So, Donny, who is that guy
speaking out of your face with your
voice if it’s not you?”

Donald says he is Christian but has never had to ask God for
forgiveness. And what is a basic
(maybe the basic tenet) of Christianity?That’s right. It’s forgiveness. God knew man would continue to sin, so He sent His Son to die on the Cross
so that we might be forgiven.

He has a
right to change his mind.

Sure, but the man will be seventy before the
general election. Shouldn’t his mind havebeen
made up on significant issues long ago?

What is more disturbing is that he is able to hold opposite
positions in his head over short spans of time (sometimes in the same day).
Another sign of severe narcissism.Isn’t
eight years with a narcissist
in the White House enough?

"Sixty-eight percent [of my followers]
would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder, I think it
means anything, okay?" —Donald Trump. Are you really going to vote for a
man who insults you that way?

The Dems want this guy to win the nomination. He polls the
worst against their candidates. He has the highest negative ratings of any
candidate.

Donald Trump is a spoiled boy in a man’s body. Even in his
senior years, he maintains the pursed-lips-pout of a small child and reacts
angrily with threats of legal action to anyone who challenges him. Because of
his personality disorder, he believes that any statement he utters is
absolutely truthful, even when it is provably false.

Texans, we have a candidate from our state. Ted Cruz is a
proven conservative, a constitutional scholar, a former Solicitor General for
Texas, a man who has represented us before the Supreme Court nine times. Do I
wish he had more private sector experience? Yes. Do I wish he had more
charisma? Yes. But I am not looking for a guy to have a beer with; I am looking
for a strong, principled leader. Cruz has kept his promises and proven
courageous under national pressure from both the media and from his fellow
Senators. If the media (including Fox) don’t like him and most politicians
don’t like him, what better recommendation could there be?

Do we really want a president who Tweets, when a tweet could
roil financial markets or cause an international incident? I think not. Common
sense, intelligence, and humility are qualities I most admire in leaders. But I
find hubris to be a dangerous trait.I’ve
worked with and for narcissists. I do not want another one to be the leader of
the free world.

Pastor Charles Stanley said, “Few people are excited about
pursuing humility because it’s considered a weakness. But if we understand
God’s view of it, we’ll realize that humility is an extremely significant
quality. Philippians 2:3 says, ‘Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but
with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves’.”

Ben Shapiro says: "In
truth, we should never be comfortable with our politicians. We should never
trust them. Our celebrities have become royals, and our politicians have become celebrities. That means we crown ourselves a
king or queen every four years. And America needs no kings and queens. We need
unimportant, decent people who focus on how to make themselves unimportant in
our lives."